Semyon Dezhnev
Encyclopedia
Semyon Ivanovich Dezhnyov was a Russian explorer of Siberia and the first European to sail through the Bering Strait
. In 1648 he sailed from the Kolyma River
on the Arctic Ocean to the Anadyr River
on the Pacific. His exploit was forgotten for almost a hundred years and Vitus Bering
is usually given credit for discovering the strait that bears his name.
or the village of Pinega
. According to Lydia Black (2004: 17), Dezhnyov was recruited for Siberian service, possibly as a service-man or government agent, in 1630. He served for eight years in Tobolsk
and Yeniseisk, and then went to Yakutia in 1639, or possibly earlier. He ”is said to have been a member of the Cossack
detachment under Beketov
, who is credited with founding Yakutsk
(on the Lena River
) in 1632. In any case, no later than 1639 he was sent to Yakutia, where he married a Yakut
captive and spent the next three years collecting tribute from the natives.
In 1641 Dezhnyov moved northeast to a newly-discovered tributary of the Indigirka River
where he served under Mikhail Stadukhin
. Finding few furs and hostile natives and hearing of a rich river to the east, he and Stadukhin and Dmitry Zyrian sailed down the Indigirka, then east along the coast and until the Kolyma River
and built an ostrog
(1643). This was the time the easternmost Russian frontier. The Kolyma soon proved to be one of the richest areas in eastern Siberia. In 1647 396 men paid head-tax there and 404 men received passports to travel from Yakutsk to the Kolyma.
From about 1642, Russians began hearing of a ‘Pogycha River’ to the east which flowed into the Arctic and was rich in sable fur, walrus ivory and silver ore. An attempt to reach it in 1646 failed. In 1647 Fedot Alekseyev
, an agent of a Moscow merchant, organized an expedition and brought in Dezhnyov because he was a government official. The expedition reached the sea but were unable to round the Chukchi Peninsula
because they had to turn back due to thick drift ice.
The following year (1648), they tried again. Fedot Alekseyev was joined by two others, Andreev and Afstaf’iev, representing the Guselnikov merchant house, with their own vessels and men, while Alekseyev provided five vessels and the majority of the men. Also Gerasim Ankudinov, with his own vessel and 30 men, joined the expedition. Dezhnyov recruited his own men, 18 or 19, for fur gathering for private profit, as was the custom at the time. The whole group numbered between 89 and 121 men, travelling in traditional koch
vessels. At least one woman, Alekseyev’s Yakut wife, was with this group.
On 20 June 1648 (old style, 30 June new style) they departed from (most likely) Srednekolymsk
and sailed down the river to the Arctic. Next year it was learned from captives that two koches had been wrecked and their survivors were killed by the natives. Two other koches were lost in a way that is not recorded. Some time before 20 September (o.s) they rounded a ‘great rocky projection’. Here Ankudinov’s koch was wrecked and the survivors were transferred to the remaining two. At the beginning of October a storm blew up and Fedot’s koch disappeared. (In 1653/4, Dezhnyov captured from the Koryaks Fedot’s Yakut woman who had accompanied him from the Kolyma. She said that Fedot died of scurvy, several of his companions were killed by the Koryaks and the rest fled in small boats to an unknown fate). Dezhnyov’s koch was driven by the storm and was eventually wrecked somewhere south of the Anadyr. The remaining 25 men wandered in unknown country for 10 weeks until they came to the mouth of the Anadyr. Twelve men went up the Anadyr, walked for 20 days, found nothing and turned back. Three of the stronger men got back to Dezhnyov and the rest were never heard of again. In the spring or early summer of 1649 the remaining 12 men built boats from driftwood and went up the Anadyr. They were probably trying to get out of the tundra into forested country for sables and firewood. About 320 miles upriver they built a zimov’ye (winter quarters) somewhere near Anadyrsk
and subjected the local Anauls to tribute. Here they were effectively stranded.
In 1649 Russians on the Kolyma ascended the Anyuy River
branch of the Kolyma and learned that one could travel from its headwaters to the headwaters of the Pogycha-Anadyr. In 1650 Stadukhin and Semyon Motora followed this route and stumbled onto Dezhnyov’s camp. The land route was clearly superior and Dezhnyov’s sea route was never used again. Dezhnyov spent the next several years exploring and collecting tribute from the natives. More cossacks arrived from the Kolyma, Motora was killed and Stadukhin went south to find the Penzhina River. Dezhnyov found a walrus rookery at the mouth of the Anadyr and ultimately accumulated over 2 tons of Walrus ivory
which was far more valuable than the few furs found at Anadyrsk.
In 1659 Dezhnyov transferred his authority to Kurbat Ivanov, the discoverer of Lake Baikal. In 1662 he was at Yakutsk. In 1664 he reached Moscow in charge of a load of tribute. He later served on the Olenyok River
and the Vilyuy River. In 1670 he escorted 47,164 rubles (a soldier was paid about 5 rubles a year) of tribute to Moscow and died there in late 1672.
, now known to Russians as mys Dezhenyova (‘Cape Dezhnyov’), possibly made landfall on the Diomede Islands
, sailed through Bering Strait
, reached the Anadyr River
, ascended it and founded the Anadyr ostrog
. Four out of the seven vessels were lost before even reaching Bering Strait, and Ankudinov’s koch was wrecked in or near Bering Strait. This meant that only two vessels went beyond the strait. Alekseyev’s boat is believed by some to had made landfall in the vicinity of the Kamchatka River
, further down the coast of Kamchatka. It appears that scholars agree only on the fate of Dezhnyov’s vessel, which was not lost. It was widely believed at the time that these vessels had reached the American shore and that their men had founded a Russian settlement there. Such a colony was searched for by many Russian expeditions launched by the Russian-American Company
from 1818 on and during the early 1820’s.
From at least 1575 European geographers had heard of a Strait of Anian connecting the Pacific and Atlantic. Some had it at the Bering Strait (map at right) and others had it running from the Gulf of California to Baffin Bay. It is not certain that Russians in Siberia had heard of it. The first Western map to show a Strait of Anian between Asia and North America was probably that of Giacomo Gastaldi
in 1562. Many cartographers followed this until the time of Bering. The source is said to be an interpretation of Marco Polo
, but otherwise the documents do not explain where the idea came from.
Dezhnyov was illiterate or semi-literate and probably did not understand the importance of what he had done. He certainly did not sail across to Alaska, prove that there was no land bridge to the north or south or compare his knowledge to that of learned geographers. Nowhere did he claim to have discovered the eastern tip of Asia, merely that he had rounded a great rocky projection on his way to the Anadyr.
Dezhnyov left reports at Yakutsk and Moscow but these were ignored, probably because his sea route was of no practical use. For the next 75 years garbled versions of the Dezhnyov story circulated in Siberia. Early Siberian maps are quite distorted but most seem to show a connection between the Arctic and Pacific. A few have hints of Dezhnyov. Dutch travelers heard of an ‘Ice Cape’ at the east end of Asia. Bering heard a story that some Russians had sailed from the Lena to Kamchatka. In 1728 Vitus Bering
entered Bering Strait and, by reporting this to Europe, gained credit for the discovery. In 1736 Gerhardt Friedrich Müller
found Dezhnyov’s reports in the Yakutsk archives and parts of the story began filtering back to Europe. In 1758 he published ‘Nachricten von Seereisen ....’, which made the Dezhnyov story generally known. In 1890 Oglobin found a few more documents in the archives. In the 1950s some of the originals that Muller copied were rediscovered in the Yakutsk archives.
in 1878/79 (Eight unsuccessful attempts were made between 1649 and 1787. There is some evidence that 1648 was unusually ice-free), 3) and most important, the fact that the documents can be read to imply only that Dezhnyov rounded a cape on the Arctic coast, was wrecked on that coast and wandered for 10 weeks south to the Anadyr. However, most scholars seem to agree that the Dezhnyov story as we have it is basically correct.
and Russia have named icebreakers after Dezhnyov.
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
. In 1648 he sailed from the Kolyma River
Kolyma River
The Kolyma River is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. Itrises in the mountains north of Okhotsk and Magadan, in the area of and...
on the Arctic Ocean to the Anadyr River
Anadyr River
Anadyr is a river in the far northeast Siberia which flows into Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea and drains much of the interior of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its basin corresponds to the Anadyrsky District of Chukotka....
on the Pacific. His exploit was forgotten for almost a hundred years and Vitus Bering
Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
is usually given credit for discovering the strait that bears his name.
Biography
He was Pomor, born about 1605, possibly at Veliky UstyugVeliky Ustyug
Veliky Ustyug is a town in the northeast of Vologda Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Sukhona and Yug Rivers. Administratively, it is incorporated as a town of oblast significance . It also serves as the administrative center of Velikoustyugsky District, by which it is completely...
or the village of Pinega
Pinega River
The Pinega is a river in Verkhnetoyemsky, Pinezhsky, and Kholmogorsky Districts of Arkhangelsk Oblast in Russia. It is a right tributary of the Northern Dvina River. It is long, and the area of its basin...
. According to Lydia Black (2004: 17), Dezhnyov was recruited for Siberian service, possibly as a service-man or government agent, in 1630. He served for eight years in Tobolsk
Tobolsk
Tobolsk is a town in Tyumen Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Tobol and Irtysh Rivers. It is a historic capital of Siberia. Population: -History:...
and Yeniseisk, and then went to Yakutia in 1639, or possibly earlier. He ”is said to have been a member of the Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
detachment under Beketov
Pyotr Beketov
Pyotr Beketov was a prominent Cossack explorer of Siberia and founder of many cities such as Yakutsk, Chita, and Nerchinsk.Beketov started his military service as a guardsman in 1624 and was sent to Siberia in 1627. He was appointed Enisei voevoda and proceeded on his first voyage in order to...
, who is credited with founding Yakutsk
Yakutsk
With a subarctic climate , Yakutsk is the coldest city, though not the coldest inhabited place, on Earth. Average monthly temperatures range from in July to in January. The coldest temperatures ever recorded on the planet outside Antarctica occurred in the basin of the Yana River to the northeast...
(on the Lena River
Lena River
The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean . It is the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed...
) in 1632. In any case, no later than 1639 he was sent to Yakutia, where he married a Yakut
Yakut
Yakut may refer to:* Yakuts, the Turkic people associated with the Sakha Republic* Yakut language, a Turkic language also known as Sakha.* Ruby in Turkish language* Yakut , a breed from Russia*Yakut Pony, horse breed from Siberia, Russia...
captive and spent the next three years collecting tribute from the natives.
In 1641 Dezhnyov moved northeast to a newly-discovered tributary of the Indigirka River
Indigirka River
The Indigirka River is a river in the Sakha Republic in Russia between the Yana River and the Kolyma River. It is in length. The area of its basin is 360,000 km²...
where he served under Mikhail Stadukhin
Mikhail Stadukhin
Mikhail Vasilyevich Stadukhin was a Russian explorer of far northeast Siberia, one of the first to reach the Kolyma, Anadyr, Penzhina and Gizhiga Rivers and the northern Sea of Okhotsk. He was a Pomor, probably born in the village of Pinega, and the nephew of a Moscow merchant...
. Finding few furs and hostile natives and hearing of a rich river to the east, he and Stadukhin and Dmitry Zyrian sailed down the Indigirka, then east along the coast and until the Kolyma River
Kolyma River
The Kolyma River is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. Itrises in the mountains north of Okhotsk and Magadan, in the area of and...
and built an ostrog
Ostrog
Ostrog may refer to:* Ostrog, Slovenia, a settlement in Šentjernej municipality in Slovenia* Ostrog monastery, a Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery in Montenegro* Ostroh, a historic town in Ukraine* Ostrog, a Russian term for a small fortress...
(1643). This was the time the easternmost Russian frontier. The Kolyma soon proved to be one of the richest areas in eastern Siberia. In 1647 396 men paid head-tax there and 404 men received passports to travel from Yakutsk to the Kolyma.
From about 1642, Russians began hearing of a ‘Pogycha River’ to the east which flowed into the Arctic and was rich in sable fur, walrus ivory and silver ore. An attempt to reach it in 1646 failed. In 1647 Fedot Alekseyev
Fedot Alekseyev Popov
Fedot Alekseyevich Popov , date of birth unknown, died between 1648 and 1654) was a Russian explorer who organized the first European expedition through the Bering Strait.He was normally known as Fedot Alekseyev. Only a few sources call him the son of Popov...
, an agent of a Moscow merchant, organized an expedition and brought in Dezhnyov because he was a government official. The expedition reached the sea but were unable to round the Chukchi Peninsula
Chukchi Peninsula
The Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula , at about 66° N 172° W, is the northeastern extremity of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. It is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the...
because they had to turn back due to thick drift ice.
The following year (1648), they tried again. Fedot Alekseyev was joined by two others, Andreev and Afstaf’iev, representing the Guselnikov merchant house, with their own vessels and men, while Alekseyev provided five vessels and the majority of the men. Also Gerasim Ankudinov, with his own vessel and 30 men, joined the expedition. Dezhnyov recruited his own men, 18 or 19, for fur gathering for private profit, as was the custom at the time. The whole group numbered between 89 and 121 men, travelling in traditional koch
Koch (boat)
The Koch was a special type of small one or two mast wooden sailing ships designed and used in Russia for transpolar voyages in ice conditions of the Arctic seas, popular among the Pomors....
vessels. At least one woman, Alekseyev’s Yakut wife, was with this group.
On 20 June 1648 (old style, 30 June new style) they departed from (most likely) Srednekolymsk
Srednekolymsk
Srednekolymsk is a town and the administrative center of Srednekolymsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located northeast of Yakutsk on the left bank of the Kolyma River. Population: -History:...
and sailed down the river to the Arctic. Next year it was learned from captives that two koches had been wrecked and their survivors were killed by the natives. Two other koches were lost in a way that is not recorded. Some time before 20 September (o.s) they rounded a ‘great rocky projection’. Here Ankudinov’s koch was wrecked and the survivors were transferred to the remaining two. At the beginning of October a storm blew up and Fedot’s koch disappeared. (In 1653/4, Dezhnyov captured from the Koryaks Fedot’s Yakut woman who had accompanied him from the Kolyma. She said that Fedot died of scurvy, several of his companions were killed by the Koryaks and the rest fled in small boats to an unknown fate). Dezhnyov’s koch was driven by the storm and was eventually wrecked somewhere south of the Anadyr. The remaining 25 men wandered in unknown country for 10 weeks until they came to the mouth of the Anadyr. Twelve men went up the Anadyr, walked for 20 days, found nothing and turned back. Three of the stronger men got back to Dezhnyov and the rest were never heard of again. In the spring or early summer of 1649 the remaining 12 men built boats from driftwood and went up the Anadyr. They were probably trying to get out of the tundra into forested country for sables and firewood. About 320 miles upriver they built a zimov’ye (winter quarters) somewhere near Anadyrsk
Anadyrsk
thumb|Anadyrsk was on the east-west part of the Anadyr River at the point where it swings northAnadyrsk was an important Russian ostrog in far northeastern Siberia from 1649 to 1764...
and subjected the local Anauls to tribute. Here they were effectively stranded.
Anyuy River
Anyuy River may refer to:* Anyuy River , a right tributary of the Kolyma River in the Sakha Republic, Russia* Maly Anyuy River, a tributary of the Anyuy River* Bolshoy Anyuy River, a tributary of the Anyuy River...
branch of the Kolyma and learned that one could travel from its headwaters to the headwaters of the Pogycha-Anadyr. In 1650 Stadukhin and Semyon Motora followed this route and stumbled onto Dezhnyov’s camp. The land route was clearly superior and Dezhnyov’s sea route was never used again. Dezhnyov spent the next several years exploring and collecting tribute from the natives. More cossacks arrived from the Kolyma, Motora was killed and Stadukhin went south to find the Penzhina River. Dezhnyov found a walrus rookery at the mouth of the Anadyr and ultimately accumulated over 2 tons of Walrus ivory
Walrus ivory
Walrus tusk ivory comes from two modified upper canines. The tusks of a Pacific walrus may attain a length of one meter. Walrus teeth are also commercially carved and traded. The average walrus tooth has a rounded, irregular peg shape and is approximately 5cm in length.The tip of a walrus tusk has...
which was far more valuable than the few furs found at Anadyrsk.
In 1659 Dezhnyov transferred his authority to Kurbat Ivanov, the discoverer of Lake Baikal. In 1662 he was at Yakutsk. In 1664 he reached Moscow in charge of a load of tribute. He later served on the Olenyok River
Olenyok River
The Olenyok River is a major river in northern Siberian Russia, west of the lower Lena River and east of the Anabar River. It is long, of which around is navigable. Average water discharge is 1210 m³/s...
and the Vilyuy River. In 1670 he escorted 47,164 rubles (a soldier was paid about 5 rubles a year) of tribute to Moscow and died there in late 1672.
Dezhnyov’s 1648 expedition results summarized
As stated above, Dezhnyov traveled with Fedot Alekseyev two others, Andreev and Afstaf’iev. Except for Dezhnyov, none of the other leaders of this expedition survived to tell their tale. Dezhnyov rounded the eastern extremity of Asia, East CapeCape Dezhnev
Cape Dezhnyov or Cape Dezhnev is a cape that forms the eastmost mainland point of Eurasia. It is located on the Chukchi Peninsula in the very thinly populated Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia. This cape is located between the Bering Sea and the Chukchi Sea, across from Cape Prince of Wales in...
, now known to Russians as mys Dezhenyova (‘Cape Dezhnyov’), possibly made landfall on the Diomede Islands
Diomede Islands
The Diomede Islands , also known in Russia as Gvozdev Islands , consist of two rocky, tuya-like islands:* The U.S. island of Little Diomede or, in its native language, Ignaluk , and* The Russian island of Big Diomede , also known as Imaqliq,...
, sailed through Bering Strait
Bering Strait
The Bering Strait , known to natives as Imakpik, is a sea strait between Cape Dezhnev, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, the easternmost point of the Asian continent and Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska, USA, the westernmost point of the North American continent, with latitude of about 65°40'N,...
, reached the Anadyr River
Anadyr River
Anadyr is a river in the far northeast Siberia which flows into Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea and drains much of the interior of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its basin corresponds to the Anadyrsky District of Chukotka....
, ascended it and founded the Anadyr ostrog
Anadyrsk
thumb|Anadyrsk was on the east-west part of the Anadyr River at the point where it swings northAnadyrsk was an important Russian ostrog in far northeastern Siberia from 1649 to 1764...
. Four out of the seven vessels were lost before even reaching Bering Strait, and Ankudinov’s koch was wrecked in or near Bering Strait. This meant that only two vessels went beyond the strait. Alekseyev’s boat is believed by some to had made landfall in the vicinity of the Kamchatka River
Kamchatka River
The Kamchatka River runs eastward for through Kamchatka Krai in the Russian Far East towards the Pacific Ocean. The river is rich with salmon, millions of which spawn yearly and which once supported the settlements of the native Itelmen....
, further down the coast of Kamchatka. It appears that scholars agree only on the fate of Dezhnyov’s vessel, which was not lost. It was widely believed at the time that these vessels had reached the American shore and that their men had founded a Russian settlement there. Such a colony was searched for by many Russian expeditions launched by the Russian-American Company
Russian-American Company
The Russian-American Company was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the so-called Shelekhov-Golikov Company of Grigory Shelekhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov The Russian-American Company (officially: Under His Imperial Majesty's Highest Protection (patronage)...
from 1818 on and during the early 1820’s.
A Discovery and its Re-Discovery
Giacomo Gastaldi
Giacomo Gastaldi was an Italian cartographer of the 16th century. Gastaldi began his career as an engineer, serving the Venetian Republic in that capacity until the fourth decade of the sixteenth century...
in 1562. Many cartographers followed this until the time of Bering. The source is said to be an interpretation of Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
, but otherwise the documents do not explain where the idea came from.
Dezhnyov was illiterate or semi-literate and probably did not understand the importance of what he had done. He certainly did not sail across to Alaska, prove that there was no land bridge to the north or south or compare his knowledge to that of learned geographers. Nowhere did he claim to have discovered the eastern tip of Asia, merely that he had rounded a great rocky projection on his way to the Anadyr.
Dezhnyov left reports at Yakutsk and Moscow but these were ignored, probably because his sea route was of no practical use. For the next 75 years garbled versions of the Dezhnyov story circulated in Siberia. Early Siberian maps are quite distorted but most seem to show a connection between the Arctic and Pacific. A few have hints of Dezhnyov. Dutch travelers heard of an ‘Ice Cape’ at the east end of Asia. Bering heard a story that some Russians had sailed from the Lena to Kamchatka. In 1728 Vitus Bering
Vitus Bering
Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering Vitus Jonassen Bering (also, less correNavy]], a captain-komandor known among the Russian sailors as Ivan Ivanovich. He is noted for being the first European to discover Alaska and its Aleutian Islands...
entered Bering Strait and, by reporting this to Europe, gained credit for the discovery. In 1736 Gerhardt Friedrich Müller
Gerhardt Friedrich Müller
Gerhard Friedrich Müller was a historian and pioneer ethnologist.-Biography:He was educated at Leipzig.In 1725, he was invited to St. Petersburg to co-found the Imperial Academy of Sciences...
found Dezhnyov’s reports in the Yakutsk archives and parts of the story began filtering back to Europe. In 1758 he published ‘Nachricten von Seereisen ....’, which made the Dezhnyov story generally known. In 1890 Oglobin found a few more documents in the archives. In the 1950s some of the originals that Muller copied were rediscovered in the Yakutsk archives.
Doubts on real Dezhnyov's route
From at least 1777 various people have doubted the Dezhnyov story. The reasons are: 1) the poor documentation, 2) the fact that no one was able to repeat Dezhnyov’s route until Adolf Erik NordenskiöldAdolf Erik Nordenskiöld
Freiherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld was a Finnish baron, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finnish-Swedish origin. He was a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists...
in 1878/79 (Eight unsuccessful attempts were made between 1649 and 1787. There is some evidence that 1648 was unusually ice-free), 3) and most important, the fact that the documents can be read to imply only that Dezhnyov rounded a cape on the Arctic coast, was wrecked on that coast and wandered for 10 weeks south to the Anadyr. However, most scholars seem to agree that the Dezhnyov story as we have it is basically correct.
Cape Dezhnyov
In 1898 the east cape of Asia was officially renamed Cape Dezhnyov, and a large monument was erected in the explorer’s memory on the seacoast, complete with stone bust and iron star. Both the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
and Russia have named icebreakers after Dezhnyov.